CASA of the Coastal Bend Burglary Suspect Arrested

The manhunt is over for the individual who police say broke into and ransacked CASA of the Coastal Bend, a local non-profit that helps children.

Author:
Jonathan Munson

Published:
9:31 AM CST January 29, 2014

Updated:
1:52 PM CST February 3, 2014

The manhunt is over for the individual who police say broke into and ransacked CASA of the Coastal Bend, a local non-profit that helps children.

The burglary happened in the early morning hours Monday at the CASA building in the 2600 block of Prescott. Since then, there has been an outpouring of public support as the non-profit tries to recover from the incident.

Volunteers were being trained as planned on Wednesday, and toys were starting to fill the shelves once again -- shelves that were left nearly empty after Monday's burglary.

Police obtained a felony arrest warrant for 21-year old Andrew Leo Pena on Wednesday. Pena was arrested Tuesday at a home in 2400 block of Cloyde, where officers said the homeowner had discovered the stolen property and notified authorities.

Maria Gloria, the woman living in the home on Cloyde Street, told police that a couple of weeks ago, she let Pena, an acquaintance of her daughter, move in because he wasn't getting along with his mother and had nowhere to go. She felt sorry for him because it was going to get cold.

On Tuesday morning, Gloria discovered a purse containing prescription medication in her trash can. The medication did not belong to her, so she called the phone number listed on the bottle. She found out that the medication, along with the purse, had been stolen during the Monday morning burglary at CASA of the Coastal Bend.

Gloria decided to confront Pena, but he was gone. Instead, she found stolen items laid out on the bed in the room he had been staying in. She called police, who went to the residence and hauled off the stolen goods.

According to police, they recovered a Lenovo Think Pad, Apple Super Drive, Nikon camera, cell phone and assorted toys taken in the burglary.

Pena returned to the home later in the day, and police were sent back to the residence on a disturbance call. That's when they arrested their suspect.

"We are extremely grateful for the Corpus Christi Police Department, the action that they took," said Diana Booth, outreach director at CASA of the Coastal Bend. "It was an immediate response. The community, for all of the phone calls and the support."

Pena was charged with a motion to revoke probation on a previous burglary charge on Tuesday, but now those charges have been upgraded to include the burglary of CASA. His bond has been set at $10,000.